Political discussion and ranting, premised upon the fact that even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Incompetence in the Name of Balance at CNN

Romney, as usual, is lying and engaging in demagoguery about the President:

Mitt Romney escalated Republican attacks on President Barack Obama's energy policies Sunday, calling for the firing or resignations of what he labeled the "gas hike trio" of top energy and environment officials in the administration.

The Republican presidential hopeful's remarks on "Fox News Sunday" illustrated a GOP strategy to target Obama for rising gas prices as part of a campaign narrative that depicts the president as stifling U.S. production in order to boost alternative energy sources....

"There's no question" that Obama is to blame for higher gas prices, Romney said on Fox, adding that the president wanted higher energy costs to help speed the transition from oil and other fossil fuels.

Why would Romney lie? As usual, the polls told him to lie:

Polls indicate Obama may be vulnerable on the issue, with his slowly rising approval rating in recent months appearing to stagnate or drop as gas prices have spiked.

Although President Obama presented a fact-based response,

Obama contends that oil prices are set by a global market and there is little that any administration can do in the short term to prevent recurring price spikes, like what is happening now.

Whether out of the pursuit of "false balance" - presenting facts from one side, lies from the other, refusing to pass judgment or provide objective context and pretending that constitutes neutral coverage - or out of sheer incompetence, you wouldn't know that from CNN's article.

It's not that CNN doesn't know that it can present factual corrections. They corrected Romney's relatively inconsequential error in the time line of the Keystone pipeline and Solyandra kerfuffles. But when he's outright lying, they're silent.